Jimmy Page says Led Zeppelin isnít a heavy metal band

Led Zeppelin has often been credited as a foundational group in the early days of heavy metal. But actually being a heavy metal band? Jimmy Page, a died-in-the-wool blues guy, begs to differ.

ďIím not really sure where we got that tag,Ē Page tells Classic Rock Society. ďThereís no denying that the elements of what became known as heavy metal is definitely there within Led Zeppelin. But the reality of it is that this is riff music, and riff music goes back to the blues ó the electric blues of the í50s and what was going on down there in Chicago.Ē

Who fucking cares? Zeppelin were a rock band that borrowed most of their riffs from the blues and shaped it into some of the best music of their era, put forth incredibly well by a charismatic frontman. It's not heavy metal , sure.

A member of stoner rocker band Deep Purple stated the same thing when they kept getting credited as foundational heavy metal. In my opinion, the peace, love and dope generation were defensively avoiding crediting bleak realists Black Sabbath. They're also the ones who taught us lying to the world is okay when feelings, money, votes, or appearances are at stake.

A member of stoner rocker band Deep Purple stated the same thing when they kept getting credited as foundational heavy metal. In my opinion, the peace, love and dope generation were defensively avoiding crediting bleak realists Black Sabbath. They're also the ones who taught us lying to the world is okay when feelings, money, votes, or appearances are at stake.

Deep Purple aren't stoner rock. Unless you meant they were people who smoked weed and who played hard rock. Were they even stoners?

Also, your theory about a 'conspiracy' among a vaguely defined 'peace, love and dope generation' to discredit the 'realists' Black Sabbath is nice speculation, but it's a damn long shot. Meanwhile, Sabbath were getting off their tits with all these people, while, for instance, Pink Floyd were taking no psychedelic drugs post-1970 and, alongside pastoral ditties, were writing 15-20 minute, modernist symphonies backdropped by Roman Colosseums in ode to the cosmos.

But wait, i forgot, Floyd were the hippies, not Sabbath... because the latter wrote a few 'dark' lyrics and used the tri-tone.

Is that the party line or whatever? Anyway, looking at something like say, Christgau and Sabbath is perhaps somewhat like that. Sabbath were portrayed as idiotic lunks by rock critics, unlike both Zepp and Deep Purple. So when heavy metal gets big, these same clueless critics relatively marginalize Sabbath (at least as much as is possible). Since these critics were also all fucking hippies, that narrative stands I think. Though the we-must-avenge / rally-the-troops style posting does get tiring, what is wrong with just... normal posting? Oh well.

Is that the party line or whatever? Anyway, looking at something like say, Christgau and Sabbath is perhaps somewhat like that. Sabbath were portrayed as idiotic lunks by rock critics, unlike both Zepp and Deep Purple.

Well, like I said, fucking Christgau. Lets look at some of his words about all three:

Black Sabbath: The worst of the counterculture (he means counter-counterculture, culture = hippies apparently) on a plastic platter--bullshit necromancy, drug-impaired reaction time, long solos, everything. They claim to oppose war, but if I don't believe in loving my enemies (fucking hippie...)I don't believe in loving my allies either, and I've been worried something like this was going to happen since the first time I saw a numerology column in an underground newspaper.

Led Zeppelin: The best of the wah-wah mannerist groups, so dirty they drool on demand. It's true that all the songs sound alike, but do we hold that against Little Richard? On the other hand, Robert Plant isn't Little Richard...

...If the great blues guitarists can make their instruments cry out like human voices, it's only fitting that Robert Plant should make his voice galvanize like an electric guitar. I've always approved theoretically of the formula that pits the untiring freak intensity of that voice against Jimmy Page's repeated low-register fuzz riffs, and here they really whip it into shape. Plant is overpowering even when Page goes to his acoustic, as he does to great effect on several surprisingly folky (not to mention folk bluesy) cuts. No drum solos, either. Heavy.

Deep Purple: "Smoke on the Water" is about a big fire in Montreux, obviously the most exciting thing to happen to these fellows since the London Symphony Orchestra. No jokes about who's getting burned, though--I approve of their speeding, and Ritchie Blackmore has copped some self-discipline as well as a few suspicious-sounding licks from his buddies in London. Personal to Paul Kantner: Check out "Space Truckin'."

Sorry, I didn't know what you meant by"Christgau", i see, after a google search, it's a person.

1. i don't think your claim that Christgau meant counter-countercultre by referring to Sabbath as 'countercultre' has any basis. He meant the hippies.

2. Sure, I don't have a problem with the idea that Sabbath were not liked as much as Zeppelin etc, as it's simply a historical fact that they did not get good press, and reviews, until around Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. However, to interpret this ideologically and politically as though it was because Sabbath represented an idea that was opposed to the counterculture and people knew this, sensed this, and were threatened by it, as opposed to it being because Sabbath were, indeed, heavier and more aggressive in sound than their closest peers (and probably took more drugs), is dubious. That's what i was responding to from Scourge's post.